Leviathan
by Beloved-Stranger
Summary: "How do you think he gets his hair like that?" he asked eventually. "All kind of scruffy and sexy and stuff." Oh. God.
1. Seafood

**Disclaimer: **Don't own, don't sue...etc.

**Spoilers:** Seasons 1 through 3

**This Episode:** Elizabeth ponders Atlantis's native sea mammals and what their presence could mean for the city.

* * *

**Part 1**

Whales, Rodney had said. The Atlantian planet had whales.

Elizabeth Weir wasn't big on seafood, but…

Whales meant that the planet also had something – and a significant quantity of that something – that could feed them, which meant again that there might be another viable food source here on their very doorstep. Admittedly they had tried fishing before, but with limited success. Without boats or gear or much in the way of know-how, they were stuck as to furthering in that field.

However, if they could prove the field was worth pursuing it would simply be a matter of having the _Daedalus_ shipping gear and training personal for fishing trips.

But before all this, the oceans would have to prove themselves, and for that, they would need to add new experts to their existing science teams.

It was time to bring in the Marine Biologists.

* * *

**Next Episode:** Dr. Grace Berry, enter stage left.


	2. Grace Berry

**Part 2**

The letter arrived on Monday, and was waiting for her on her desk when she got in that morning. Frowning at the emblem in the left hand corner, she tore open the envelop and nearly dropped the contents in surprise.

Embassy summons. The only reason one Doctor Grace Berry ever went near anything British was to renew her passport. She hadn't lived in the UK permanently since her twenties. There were several reasons for that, but the largest one had to be her sisters (pun intended).

Scanning the letter further, she found that as well as the summons there was an international proposition featuring a government (she noted it didn't specify which government) funded research programme. She was one of several biologists world wide being given the offer. As well as the funding she would be allowed to bring a maximum of two assistants, though they would need to be approved for the project.

Grace thought immediately of Genny and Casper. Genevieve Glass, one of her favourite students and now three months into her internship with Dr. Berry. Unlike her she was a native New Zealander, holding citizenship as opposed to Grace's permanent residency. The doctor wondered how this would affect her chances of being accepted as one of her chosen assistants.

Casper Hayfield was another kettle of fish (no pun intended). The young Australian was two years out of his masters' degree and had been her assistant for the past year. Since she was taking this year off from the migration circuit to teach and push paper for the rest of her team, Casper would be aiding her in the great quest for organization and the marking of papers.

Grace had no doubt he would whine throughout the entire experience.

Despite this, he was a hard worker and would probably have an easier time being chosen, as Australia was already involved in the project.

She sighed. The summons was scheduled for ten on Wednesday. The British High Commission was in Wellington, halfway down the country; a three hour flight in a bad wind. If she was lucky, she'd be able to book a flight for tomorrow and hope that at least one of her preferred assistants could join her on short notice.

She had the rather discouraging feeling her teaching career wasn't going to survive this.

* * *

**Next on _Leviathan_:** The subject of study has a meal. 


	3. Whales

**Part 3**

Shifting his massive bulk west, the bull whale gathered himself and again put forth the call.

_Here,_ he boomed. _They wait here for hungry mouths. Here is food._

About him swarmed panicking krill, and feeding upon them, fish. Some were small and silver, no more than thirty centimeters long. The greatest were a huge breed, seven feet long, deep blue, with a massive fanning sail lying along their narrow backs, and sword-pointed muzzles filled with scalpel-like teeth. They shot like arrows loosed from a massive bow, snatching wriggling bodies from the growing bait ball.

Below, there was a series of groans a several answering fanfares. The very water seemed to shiver, the sail-backs fled, and three gargantuan bodies propelled themselves skyward. Their jaw wide, they consumed the bait ball and smaller fish in jerking mouthfuls, sea water draining between their baleen plates.

The bull whale's kin had arrived.

* * *

**Next time, on _Leviathan_:** Doc Berry gets the shock of a lifetime. 


	4. Disclosure

**Part 4**

"I beg your pardon?"

The former was said in shocked, incredulous and slightly outraged tones, and was issued from the mouth of Dr. Grace Berry. Her tea cup had made it halfway to her lips before the British project representative across the table from her had uttered those three fateful words.

Aliens. Are. Real.

Grace was suitably upset. It had all the trimmings of a massive practical joke. She had flown down with both Casper and Genny, strolled into the British High Commission, given her name and immediately been whisked away by a busybody of a secretary to a private conference room. Grace hadn't registered how incredibly stuffy her fellow Englishmen could truly be – she blamed months at sea with Kiwis, Kangaroos, Yanks and that strange Dutch individual with the tiger-striped hair – until the project representative sat down opposite her, offered her tea and began a monologue of burgeoning insanity.

"In short, Mr. Princekey?" she had bit out.

And there it all was.

"You were contacted and offered this job," he continued, as though she weren't frozen with disbelief. "Because our outpost city, Atlantis, had discovered they have sea life that may prove useful, or at least worth documenting. You and your assistants, once approved, will be sent to the Pegasus Galaxy –"

_Where?!_

"– aboard the _USAF Daedalus_."

_The what!?_

"Its next scheduled trip is in approximately six weeks from now. Everything should be processed by then."

When she had signed the non-disclosure form she really, _really_ hadn't seen her day ending like this.

* * *

**Next on _Leviathan_:** Saying goodbye. 


	5. Toodles

**Part 5**

Genny Glass stared at the pack on her bed and half-heartedly attempted to cram her mind back into her skull.

It was just too much to take in. She was going with Doc Berry and Casper to study whales on a different planet. She hadn't even finished her post-grad yet.

It was all so…wacky.

Genny had moved out of her parents place when she was eighteen and spent the next three years trekking through Europe with two of her childhood friends. Upon returning, they had set up in her friend's parent's house, empty since Kalo's Mum and Dad had moved back to the Cook Islands. Genny had been living with the girls for nigh on seven years now. They were family. It wasn't just her parents and sisters she was going to have to break the news to.

Sighing, she trouped downstairs and called out for Alex and Kalo. They were in the living room, Kalo cooking lunch and Alex at the breakfast bar, the cat on her lap. Both looked up as she entered.

"Gen! You've got to hear this, Alex, go on, tell her! It's the most…Genny?"

She took a deep breath. "Guys, there's something I have to tell you. You know how I went down to Wellington on Wednesday?"

* * *

Casper Hayfield was a boy, and thus, goodbyes made him awkward. He had already rung his Mum and Dad in Sydney. The conversation had been three hours long and had involved his mother bursting into tears a lot, whereupon his father would take the phone away and carry on talking.

"She'll be okay in a minute, Cas; you know what she's like. She's happy for you, don't you worry mate."

He knew did know his mother, and Dad was right. She was happy for him, but empty nest syndrome was never fun.

Lifting an uncertain hand, he rapped on the open door and peered over the threshold of the untidy flat.

"Nessa? You here?"

His ex, Vanessa, emerged from the hallway and froze when she saw him. "Casper. Hi. Fancy seeing you here."

He gave her a lopsided smile and took the other end of the box she was struggling with. "Yeah. Nessa, look, I can't stay long, but I just wanted to let you know…um…"

She gave him a puzzled look. They had been going for over a year. Two months ago, she had sat down, looked him in the eye, and said, "It's not working". They'd agreed to stay friends, and then not seen each other since. He had heard she was moving…

"Look…Doc Berry's been offered a place on this…project. Its government funded, classified even, and really remote. It'll be months, maybe a whole year in between visits home, and –"

"Cas, what has this got to do with you?"

"She can take two assistants with her. She chose me and Genny. I came to say goodbye, Ness."

Vanessa regarded him blankly, a sort of helpless sorrow leaking slowly onto her features. "Oh…"

* * *

Before she was Doctor, Grace Berry had been seventeen, single and pregnant. Nine excruciating months later, the light of her life arrived in the form of Madeline Angela Berry. Eight pounds on the dot with her mother's blonde hair and temper, Maddie was the most beautiful thing Grace had ever laid eyes on.

Mother and daughter were each other's world for the next two and a half years.

With the help of friends the family who still spoke to her, Grace worked and studied part time, emerging six years later triumphant and with a bachelors in marine science. Three years in she had met Andrew, and a week after she graduated he made an honest woman of her. Five months later, Mark arrived squalling on the scene.

The family escaped England and for awhile Australia, then Fiji, and finally New Zealand was home. It was here that she had continued her studies, becoming Doctor Berry, and surging free of the lonely, swollen teenager she had been.

Now, again, she was leaving again. For the first time in an age, it didn't feel like running away.

There were several people she would have to call. Her ex-husband, Andrew (that was going to be awkward, but he would be glad she thought to tell him). Mark would be coming over later that day when he could get free of classes.

And then there was Maddie. The light of her life.

"Hello?"

"Maddie?"

"Mum! Hi! How've you been? I wasn't expecting you to call this soon."

"I know Sweets. Look, I've been approached about this project…"

* * *

**Next on _Leviathan_:** The unthinkable happens for Grace. 


	6. Bon Voyage Baby

**AN: **I am quite possiably, the saddest little author on the block. No reviews. Two alerts and one subscription, but no reviews. Gonna go have me a cry now.

* * *

**Part 6**

Genny and Casper gazed out of the briefing room window. Behind them, they could hear one General Hank Landry of the US Air Force straightening out a few details with Doc B. Before them was a sight unseen.

The Stargate sat it all its naquadah-fitted glory. Techs were scurrying back and forth, intent on getting maintenance done before the regular hell of life under Cheyenne broke loose. At one point a voice, muted, came over the gate room PA, "Testing brace three", and a man with graying sandy hair gestured an affirmative to the lower control room with the massive wrench in his right hand.

"All good, Walter!" they heard him call.

"Penny, Genny?"

Genny turned to her fellow assistant, smiling slightly. "I think we're in over our heads a little, Cas."

Casper grinned. "How so?"

She gave him an incredulous look. "We're going to another galaxy to study whales on a planet that risks attack by soul-sucking space vampires."

Both paused to absorb that.

"Wow. Yeah. When you put it like that…"

"Regrets?"

"Fark off," he said good-naturedly. "My life is now a sci-fi show, what's to regret?"

Genny echoed his grin.

"Point…"

* * *

She wasn't exactly sure how it happened, but she only managed to find out who was captain of their jolly spaceship as they were being shown around the damn thing.

At first, Grace didn't recognize him. Understandable, really; the last time she'd seen him, he'd hand hair and worn jeans as opposed to one of those green jumpsuit monstrosities.

Yet when he turned around…

"All personal to their stations. Commence testing of the sub-light engines. Major, I need that data report…"

It was all far too surreal. She felt as though she were trapped in an episode of Star Trek. Except instead of the lead being played by William Shatner there was –

"_Steven?"_

Colonel Steven Caldwell looked up and met the disbelieving eyes of the blonde woman in the doorway to the bridge. Hank Landry stood beside her, sharp gaze darting between the _Daedalus'_ Captain and the new Atlantis recruit. Behind him, Genny and Casper exchanged questioning glances.

"You two know each other?" Landry asked, raising his considerable eyebrows.

Caldwell blinked and nodded. "A long time ago, sir." He nodded to the doctor. "Grace. It's been a while."

She nodded back, then darted her gaze away from him, almost awkwardly. He frowned internally. Grace Berry, uncomfortable…it didn't fit. They were both adults now, they could deal with their shared…_past_, maturely, so why was she…?

This was not the time. He could corner her later. Now, he had a ship to get off the ground.

* * *

Grace found her way to her quarters and curled herself into the corner of her bunk, pulling the blanket about her shoulders. Shivering, she cursed God, Karma and Murphy's Law under her breath. Of all the times to meet him again…

Damn it, _damn it_.

* * *

Casper, it turned out, did not handle space travel well. While Grace and Genny spent their time reading, going over the relevant reports they had been given in preparation for working on Atlantis, socializing with some of the more personable staff on the _Daedalus_…

…Casper paced.

It wasn't that he didn't do the same things as his co-workers; it was that the boy simply did not have the capacity to entertain himself. He was terminally bored. Usually an active person – running, swimming, surfing if he had the time, throwing himself howling with joy off a cliff into the nearest body of water – being cloistered in the narrow passages of the Daedalus was making him…antsy.

One week in and he was starting to fidget more often when working with Doc B and Gen. Two weeks in and he was getting a cagey, glazed look. Three days before they were due to touch down on the floating city, and he was striding back and forth along the corridors, looking hunted and wild-eyed. Whenever Lindsey Novak caught sight of him, she went into a flurry of hiccups and scuttled back to her work station with Hermiod.

To others, it would seem that of the three new recruits, Genny was handling the trip better than her workmates. On the contrary, she was simply better at hiding it. She could spend hours pining in her quarters for the smallest glimpse of something green, something organic apart from human beings. Throughout Auckland, even in the very depths of downtown, one could not go a hundred meters down a street and not see some kind of tree. Three weeks of recycled air and uniform grey walls was getting to her as much as it was getting to Casper.

* * *

Even on board one's own spaceship, there was no escape from paper work. Caldwell sighed and leaned back, rubbing his eyes. His thoughts inevitably turned and turned and turned back to one person.

Grace.

They'd met, over twenty years ago, during a brief period of leave he had in England. He'd been playing tourist with a group of friends, and there was Gracie, in all her golden, wild-child glory. They'd had month together before he was called back.

It was in that moment, that curiosity got the better of him. As the captain, he had a right to the files of all personal, both passengers and staff, on board the Daedalus.

Without further ado, Colonel Caldwell began to snoop. Let's see…

_Doctor Grace Karen Berry  
Aged 42  
Married to Andrew Gregory Egret 1987 – 2002, now divorced  
Daughter, Madeline Angela, 23  
Son, Mark Andrew, 18  
Previously teaching at the University of Auckland_

Caldwell frowned. Forty-two? That couldn't be right. That would have made her…oh God, that would have made her seventeen when they'd met. Divorced with two grown children. But that couldn't be right either. Her daughter would have been five when Grace got married, which meant…

He hurriedly did the math, sat breathing deeply for several minutes then carefully did it again.

If she was seventeen when they had met, and Madeline was twenty three, born under a year after their fling together… The blood drained from his face and he sat immobile and frozen at his desk.

Somewhere back on earth was a young woman who probably had no idea that her father's name was Colonel Steven Caldwell.


	7. Dropping Eaves, Badly

**Part 7**

The inevitable happened four days into their journey.

Grace in was one of the smaller conference rooms at the time. Her assistants sat opposite her, their reports and notes scattered between them, two laptops happily humming away, and Genny singing softly under her breath. Grace had a sneaking suspicion Casper was playing Spider Solitaire.

Peace and tranquility reined…

…until the captain walked in.

Caldwell was scowling so violently it was a miracle the proverbial wind hadn't fixed his face that way yet. But, nope, there was that tic in his left eye. It would have been funny if it had been happening to anyone else.

"Glass, Hayfield," he bit out. "I need a minute with Dr. Berry."

When both assistants regarded him with startled expressions he growled, "Alone, if you don't mind."

To his chagrin, the two exchanged a look with each other then peered curiously at Grace. She nodded to them and made shooing motions. Genny gave her a small smile, while Casper eyed him suspiciously as they left.

Once outside, both darted down the corridor to the adjoining office and proceeded to eavesdrop without the slightest ounce of shame.

* * *

"Do you know what this is?" he demanded, flapping a manila folder at her. 

Grace regarded him coolly. "I haven't a clue, Steven, seeing as I haven't read it."

* * *

Next door, Casper made a pouting face and whispered to Genny, "Mummy and Daddy are fighting again." 

"Shush," she hissed back, slapping his arm. "Don't be an insensitive prick. And shut up so I can hear…"

* * *

He threw it down on the desk in front of her, glowering. "It's your file, Grace, and you'll never guess what I found in there." 

Grace pressed her lips together, furious colour rising in her cheeks. Her voice was deceptively soft as she said, "You had no right –"

"I had every right. As a passenger on an intergalactic voyage your files are subject to the scrutiny of the commanding officer, the captain. And here, Grace, that's me." His face twisted bitterly. "In this especially do I have the right. She's my daughter as well."

Those gleaming grey eyes bored holes in him, burning in a way only mothers' eyes can burn. "She is _not_ your daughter," she spat at him. "You gave that up when you ignored us both for the past twenty-four years."

"You never told me!" he roared.

"I tried!" she roared back. "I got flipped off! I was seventeen, pregnant and scared out of my mind. Half my family still won't talk to me. Do you have any idea what that's like?"

"No, because you never told –" he trailed off. "You got flipped off?"

She nodded once. "I used the number your friends gave me after you left. The officer who answered either didn't believe me or didn't think it was important enough. I don't know exactly the reason was and I don't much care." She glared at him, defiant. "We survived. We were fine. We didn't need you."

_We _don't_ need you. We don't _want_ you. _I_ don't want you._

It went unsaid, but not unheard. And it stung.

"Be that as it may…" Caldwell sighed. "She's still my daughter. Biologically," he amended, seeing Grace's eyes seem to catch fire again. "And I want to at least meet her. Know what she's like."

Grace shrugged. "She's twenty-three. She has a BA in education and she's a primary school teacher in Perth. Her favourite colour is yellow. She loves gummy bears and parachuting. She can ride and swim…but she's allergic to mangos. She's never been without a dog since we left England – I think the one she has now is a Jack Russell, Smarty.

"She's only ever asked about her father once. She asked me where you were. I had to tell her I didn't know."

Grace gave him a weary look. "I don't know what to tell you, Steven. I don't know what you want to hear. You can meet her, I can't stop you –"

Something in his chest ceased up. _I wish you didn't want to stop me…_

"– but I have no idea what she'll think, what she'll do. As far as I know she's over it, not knowing her biological father. She's happy now. Do you really want to risk that by stepping into her life?"

And he couldn't answer her. Because deep down, he didn't know.

* * *

"What are you two doing?" 

Genny squealed with fright and Casper let out a yelp of manly fear. Both jumped roughly a foot in the air and risked cardiac arrest.

Doc Berry stood glowering at them, arms crossed over her chest. Her eyes narrowed dangerously. "You were _eavesdropping_, weren't you?"

"Out of concern," managed Casper, still relearning how to breathe. Genny was silently giving her spaniel-eyes. Lesser beings had fallen to that look. Grace knew when she was beaten.

"You're insufferable, both of you," she muttered.

It was too soon to hug her, but for now, smiles would suffice.


	8. Wow, Big

**Part 8**

"Remind me why I'm here again."

Elizabeth gave him a sidelong look. "You're here," she said, in the manner of one speaking to an especially dim child. "Because we're greeting the newest members of the Expedition and making sure they get settled properly."

John's eyebrows seemed to rise of their own accord. "And?"

"What do you mean 'and'?"

"That's it? That's why I'm here? When I could be doing other far more interesting things?"

"Like?"

"…interesting stuff."

Elizabeth pursed her lips slightly. "Rodney's been a very bad influence on you."

"He has not! And you didn't answer my question."

"Which one?"

"The 'and' part."

This time she smirked, rocking gently back on her heels and looking a little too pleased with herself.

"_And_, because I said so. Now be nice, that's them now."

"I'm always nice," he muttered, but turned his gaze to the three figures descending the steps from the _Daedalus's_ passenger entrance to Atlantis's eastern pier.

The first down was a young man with dark brown hair and glasses. He was easily six foot, if somewhat lean. John had a bad feeling Atlantis's female contingent was going to appreciate this 'new meat'. He was good looking enough, despite the slightly hooked nose. The Colonel wondered how the marines would react to the competition. Wracking his brains he managed to come up with the name that had been in the memo. Casper Hayfield.

The moment the guy reached the last step he threw down his duffle bag, dropped to his knees and proclaimed, arms wide to embrace the world, "Thank fucking God! No more recycled air, no more subspace, no more nosy Cap–"

"Oh for God's sake, Casper, get up. You utter, _utter_ drama queen."

The woman who had spoken was easily as short as Teyla, if just a little lusher of figure. Her ash-blonde hair was pulled back in a long braid that hung over one shoulder. He noted the English accent and round, fine-boned face. She was smiling despite herself, and it reminded him of the smile Elizabeth sometimes used when regarding Rodney. This, then, was Dr. Grace Berry, their first marine biologist.

Her comment had startled a laugh out of the third person. Average height; strawberry blonde hair curling in an unruly ponytail; bold, rather Irish features visibly cheerful even from this distance. He could just make out that her toenails were painted an eye-gouging shade of green. Last but not least, one Genevieve Glass, possibly one of the youngest of the Expedition staff at twenty-five.

The girl grinned, taking in the new world around her, and suddenly John had the sneaking suspicion the marines wouldn't take Casper's competition _too_ badly…

* * *

Once they had gotten inside and through the official meet and greet with Dr. Weir and Col. Sheppard (if she managed to get a picture home Alex and Kalo were going to have a _fit_) another assistant was shown in and assigned to give them the nickel tour. Dr. Weir had asked Doc Berry to stay back to discuss a 'personal matter' briefly. Genny and Casper shared a look but let themselves be shooed off and went ahead without her.

The assistant – Ava – showed them their quarters first and everyone stopped to dump their 'hand-luggage' before moseying off to the labs and adjoining office areas. Half an hour latter, thoroughly bamboozled and very nearly about to implode with excitement, the two of them waved to Ava as she left to get back to work, then crashed on Casper's balcony to recover.

"Can you believe this place?" Genny gushed. "Not only to have we got labs, they've been putting up a pontoon offshore of the continent. It's –"

"– Practically our own mini-research station." Casper grinned lazily at her from his spot on a massive floor cushion. "I know, Gen, I was there when they told us, I do remember."

She threw herself back into her chair, sprawling with a goofy smile on her face. "I could die of happiness!"

"Gracious, I hope not."

"Doc B! Hi!"

Grace smiled at them as the door to the balcony slid shut behind her. "Hello, you two. I suppose the tour went well. You found everything alright?"

"Yeah, did you just get back from yours?"

The doctor nodded. "It's a truly amazing set up they have here. Not to mention the lengths they've gone to for all the departments. We're not the only ones with a station removed from the city. There are several science stations off-world as well. Ava was telling me about the zoology one they've just got running." Her smile widened. "You'd better get an early night, if you can possibly sleep. We're being flown out to the pontoon tomorrow morning to begin getting set up."

Despite that, though, it was late before any of them made it to bed. Under a foreign night sky, Grace, Casper and Genny began their adventure of a lifetime.


	9. High on Life

**AN:** I took ages, I know. But this time, it is not by fault. You can all take your torches and pitchforks and go after my beta. She's a slack tart (also, there's the fact that she's not only OCD, a little ADHD, but there are times I think she may have Tourettes. Seriously, the stuff that comes out of her mouth when she's grumpy...) I've been at her for weeks to give this a go over...so to make it up to you guys, I've double posted. Part's 9 _and_ 10.

Have fun, sweeties. 

* * *

**Part 9**

All of a sudden it was the next morning, and Genny was eyeing the uniform she had been issued with trepidation and distaste. Doc Berry, in all her wisdom, had foreseen this problem, and had attempted to talk Genny out of doing (read: _wearing_) anything rash. The assistant had made a deal. She would wear the BDUs around the city, _most_ of the time, with only a few _small_ adjustments.

But today was her first day. And they were spending the day on the pontoon. And she'd probably have to test-drive the new dive gear anyway…

No, it simply would not do.

Today, of all days, she was going mufti.

* * *

Evan had arrived at what he thought was early to the jumper bay, only to find that someone had beaten him to the punch. The someone was blonde, wearing science department BDUs and apparently checking off the items ranged around her on a data pad. At the sound of his footfalls, she looked up to regard him with bird-bright eyes and a faint smile.

"Major Lorne, I presume?"

He nodded and shook her hand. "Doctor Berry. I'm guessing Dr. Weir told you I'd be your pilot for today?"

"She did." The Doctor smiled and made a pleased hum-sound. "It's almost like having a chauffeur."

Evan wasn't exactly sure how to reply to that, but was saved from doing so by the arrival of their newest Australian.

"Ignore her," the young man said, moseying on in. "The English are all at least half-mad. It's the cows. Our Doc B's no exception." Then he grinned and introduced himself. So this was Casper Hayfield. Evan noted the lazy smile and the fact that the only part of the uniform he was wearing was the shirt. Instead of BDU's and boots was a pair of Billabong boardies, flip-flops and a matching cap.

'Doc B' was giving her assistant an arch look. "Since you're in such good sorts this morning, you can help Major Lorne load this lot into his puddle-jumper."

Casper gave her a limpid look. "You're not helping?"

Dr. Berry gave him a saccharine smile. "I'm so sorry; my _mad-cow_ has rendered me incapable of physical exertion. Oh, whatever shall I do?" She put the back of her wrist against her forehead in a mock swoon. "I suppose you and Genny will just have to do all the dive testing today as well. Well, gol-ly gosh."

Evan raised his eyebrows questioningly. "You really won't be getting in the water today, Ma'am? I was under the impression –"

"Now why would I get in the water when I've got my very own hired cannon fodder?"

Evan suddenly realized she was teasing them both.

"Oh, thank you _very_ much," Casper snarked, lugging a box of lab equipment into the jumper. "You realize you've just jinxed me? I won't survive the year now."

"Oh, you'll be fine, Cas."

"Lies!" he mock-roared from the puddle jumper. "Filthy, stinkin' lies!"

Doc Berry laughed, then turned to Evan. "He's terrible isn't he?" Before he could answer she seized his wrist and peered at his watch. "Gracious, is that the time? Where has that girl gotten to?"

As if she had heard the spoken summons, there were footsteps in the corridor leading to the bay, and a twenty-something emerged.

Holy God.

What was she _wearing_?

Casper emerged from the jumper and looked over the major's shoulder. He grinned. Something went 'click' in Evan's brain, and he asked, "Is that…?"

"Our very own walking eighties revival? Why yes, yes it is. We call her 'Genny'."

Walking revival was right. White and black polka-dotted ballet-flats and deep purple three-quarter leggings; a giant black t-shirt, sporting massive block capitals of neon pink (HIGH ON LIFE!) long enough to be a dress and thus cinched at the hips with a wide white belt…and, of course, perched upon the wild strawberry hair, a pair of matching white framed sunglasses.

As if that wasn't bad enough, as she got closer, Evan could see that the studs she wore in her ears were, in fact, tiny pink piglets.

"Gen," Doc B greeted her, "dressing down for the day are we?"

The girl sighed melodramatically. "I know. How ever will you find me in a crowd these days?"

"'Tis simply another peril of this far away existence we must overcome," the doctor said sagely.

Casper snickered, then called for her to come and say hello 'to his fellow pack horse'.

She smiled and shook his hand. "Genevieve Glass, paid flunky."

Evan grinned back. "Major Evan Lorne, assigned chauffeur."

"Nifty. So, how fast's this jumper thing go?"

* * *

_Next time, on **Leviathan**:_ The first day continues, and as promised, Genny falls over. 


	10. The Pontoon

**AN: **As promised...**  
**

* * *

**Part 10**

The pontoon consisted of a floating platform anchored to the sea floor, featuring a jumper landing pad and a single two story building. This contained what appeared to be temporary staff quarters, labs, offices and a small cafeteria. It had been discovered roughly three months prior to their arrival (dented and waterlogged from ten-thousand years worth of storms and sea water). Up until six weeks ago it had been left to its own rather dank devices except as an emergency stop for jumpers heading to and from the continent.

"I thought this was something the Expedition put together," Casper asked, as Evan explained this.

"By putting together, we mean, putting _back_ together," he corrected with a wry half-smile. "You'll find that a lot round here."

Since the pontoon had run on an Ancient's version of a generator (as opposed to a ZPM), it wasn't any sort of hardship to replace the damaged generator with a naquadah one. As well as that, the place had been given a go-over by a team of water blaster wielding lackeys and several types of brutal astringents. The laboratories very nearly sparkled, the landing pad had that freshly-scrubbed-look and the offices and temp quarters had been dried and aired.

The arrival of Doc Berry and her minions had become the reason (read: excuse) to get the place up and running. The marine biology team would be sharing the facilities with other marine experts such as Atlantis' three oceanographers (who, the good doctor grumbled, would probably filch her assistants every three minutes).

As they dragged, heaved and trundled boxes of equipment, the four of them exchanged 'recruitment' tales.

"So, Major," Dr. Berry began. "What brings a strapping young lad like yourself to this side of the universe?"

He raised an eyebrow, grinning. 'Strapping young lad'…she couldn't be more than five or six years older than him. "Oh you know; action, adventure, beautiful alien princesses to be rescued."

("Isn't that more Sheppard's thing?" Genny wondered out loud, then blushed when Grace gave her a knowing look and muttered, "Gossip.")

"Yeah, 'cos it sure as hell wasn't the soul-sucking space vampires," Casper muttered, staggering past.

Genny was frowning. At some point she'd kicked off her shoes and was wandering about barefoot. Sheppard had been right to warn him about the toe-nails. One word: day-glo. "Speaking of unimaginable danger," she said, "aren't you worried about dying here; about leaving someone behind on Earth? Without them knowing why…"

Evan shook his head, helping Casper with the unwieldy case of electronics. "I'm the same as everyone else in Atlantis, really. We were all chosen because we're pretty much loners. Not as many ties back on Earth. I mean, I still talk with my parents, see them at Christmas and stuff…but a lot of us were living alone, single, you know?"

They didn't. If anything the three of them seemed puzzled. "I can't say I do." Grace exchanged equally confused looks with her assistants. "I'm single, I live alone, yes, but I still see my children."

"I'm only living alone by default," Casper added. "If I'd stayed in Oz I'd be flatting with the guys I was in uni with. And I'd still be living in the same city as my parents. And I sure as hell wouldn't be single."

Evan laughed. Grace rolled her eyes.

Genny piped up, "I was still living with my high school mates, _and_ my parents – not to mention my rabid sisters. None of whom are particularly happy with me at the moment."

"They didn't like the whole, 'I have to go far away and I can't tell you why or where' thing?" Evan asked. When Genny winced, he nodded. "It's exactly why the rest of us were chosen the way we were. No partners, or spouses, or young children to leave behind." He gave her an apologetic look. "I'm not sure parents and rabid sisters count."

Dr. Berry made a thoughtful noise. "It makes sense I suppose. It also explains why we're _it_ for this project. Marine biologists that specialize in whales are few and far between. Of the ones not currently on a migration circuit, there would have only been a small number who wouldn't have bolted into the proverbial kelp fields at the first sign of a non-disclosure form. Those who _did_ sign probably had people they didn't want to leave behind."

"Or they just didn't want to get the life sucked out of them by a pack of amoral _space vampires_," Casper interjected.

"You just can't let that go, can you?" Doc B was smirking.

"_**Space vampires**_!"

Curiosity piqued, Evan asked, "What about if you guys find the whales are eating something we can eat too? Will they bring in others?"

"From the descriptions we have of them, they look very similar to the baleen whales at home, so chances are they won't be eating anything that we would want to eat. They'll be eating something similar to krill." Dr. Berry grinned. "But where there's a tiny, planktonic crustacean, there's usually a food chain, and around the middle of it there should be something we can turn into chowder and sushi.

"After we've ascertained that, yes, other specialist biologists will be called in to study the food supply. After _that_, fishing will be looked into."

* * *

After the jumper was unloaded and the supplies and equipment put away, Dr. Berry declared it was time to test their dive gear. Casper volunteered to go first, so Doc B, Genny and Evan went to retrieve the gear from the foyer of the pontoon building.

"Right, Major, if you'll help me with Casper's tank, and Genny, if you could grab the mask and valves."

Genny nodded and began gathering various bits of gear, saying she'd meet then out on the dock. Evan and Dr. Berry lugged the tank out and down the short flight of steps to Casper, passing several of the boxes left on the dock by the jumper. They were mostly full of leftover equipment that wouldn't fit in the pontoon's storage lockers or be needed.

When was Dr. Berry helped Casper check the tank, they heard the building's door open. Evan looked up, and then watched in horror as Genny somehow managed to trip down the stairs, squeal, twist in midair and go bum-first into a box bedding.

"Ha-_hah_!" Casper crowed. "Fall Out Girl strikes again!"

When the snickering had died down, and Genny pulled out of the box, Evan reflected that as first days went, this one had gone pretty well.

* * *

_Next time, on __**Leviathan**: _The Long Goodbye - first of the missing scenes. Card games, gossip and thank-yous. Same whale time, same whale channel! 


	11. The Long Goodbye

**AN:** Inevitably, I have realized that any set of missing scenes I do for this story is going to be hideously long. This is easily twice the regular chapter length. _Sigh_. However, I know you guys won't be complaining. Have fun, and don't forget to tell me whatcha think!

* * *

**Part 11 / The Long Goodbye**

"Grace?"

Were she a more vocal and violent woman, Grace might have sworn. It wasn't that he wasn't supposed to be here…it was that she didn't really want him here. This was her place, her lab.

"In here, Steven."

She looked up from her laptop and watched him appear in the lab doorway. He still wore that awful jumpsuit thing. She promised herself that if any military type ever came at her brandishing one of those…_garments_, they would be answered by a cloud of dust as she beat a hasty retreat, or a heavy, blunt object with some sort of handgrip.

She was rambling, she realized. Internally, but she was rambling. She'd done that when she was younger, the times she got nervous. She was nervous now.

A stray spoke of sunshine touched his face, and Grace was reminded that her daughter had this man's eyes.

He sat on the opposite side of her workbench, perching awkwardly on one of the stools and watching her with Madeline's eyes, except she didn't think her daughter's had ever had that wary, calculating look behind them.

"I don't have long," he reminded her gently. "I'm meeting Dr. Weir in a few hours."

Grace nodded. "I know it's been difficult lately," she began. "But there are things we have to talk about…"

* * *

It had been an odd sort of day. Genny had fallen over (again), this time at six in the morning, tripping over a clothes basket in the pontoon's small laundry facility. She managed to crack her ankle bad enough that Doc Berry had radioed the City, and Lorne come to collect them. They had been due to go back in the afternoon as it was.

Next, as Casper sat with Gen in the infirmary, gently making fun of her while a nurse checked her over, there was a sudden kafuffle and Dr. Beckett, plus Caldwell, that Colonel dude and a panicked-looking guy with a data pad all stamped into a private room. Before them, several of the City's EMTs were wheeling an unconscious Dr. Weir.

Casper looked at the nurse and raised his eyebrows. "That happen often?"

The nurse had looked pained. Casper took this as a rather decisive _yes_.

They day progressed rather simply from there. He and Genny putzed around the lab, mostly doing data entry and making sure all their City-side equipment worked as well as the stuff on the pontoon. They had spent their first month in the Pegasus Galaxy getting the pontoon settled, then living there and gathering basics on the surrounding ocean. This close to the mainland it greatly resembled the Pacific at home – similar temperatures and basic organisms, etcetera.

Several trips in a jumper had led them to find that the opposite side of the continent passed through the planet's equator, and was home to several bays that were sheltered enough and the water warm enough for whale breeding. If they behaved in a similar manner to Earth's whales, they would mate and give birth there before heading for either of the planet's poles to spend the rest of the year feeding. Even though there were no land masses, there were still icecaps.

It must have been about five when the announcement came over.

"_All non-military personal, please return to your living quarters and remain until further notice."_

Casper, who had been ferreting around under his bench for his dropped earpiece, didn't hear this. Genny took it upon herself to inform him.

"Casper?" she said, rapping on the top of the bench.

Evidently, he hadn't been expecting that. There was surprised yelp from beneath the bench and a painful sounding _crack_. He emerged scowling and holding the crown of his head.

"Um, sorry, Cas. There was an announcement though. We have to go back to our rooms. I think it might be a lockdown or something."

"It is." Dr. Berry strode in from the neighbouring lab, carrying her data pad, and wearing the same tired look she'd had this morning.

"Hi, Doc."

She smiled, and Casper felt a little better. He'd worked for the good doctor for two years, and the two of them were friends, in the same way he was friends with Genny. It was hard to see either of them shoveling emotional shit and not being able to do much about it.

"You two are going to come back to my quarters. They're closer; they'll be quicker to get to," she told them.

"Quicker is better?" Casper asked.

Dr. Berry nodded. "I managed to stop a marine in the hall before coming to get you. He said it was urgent we get there as soon as possible and stay put. So, come on."

As the left, Casper muttered, "Why do I get the feeling this will end badly?"

* * *

They ended up sitting on pillows in Dr. Berry's room. Genny needed an extra pillow for her ankle, but other than that they were quite comfortable, and got down to the serious business of playing last card and eating pilfered snack food. It was that precise moment that Genny began her twenty-first campaign – of gossip.

Genny had gossiped her entire life, and it was one of her favourite vices. The core of it was simple curiosity and wanting to be party to the lives of people around her – the rest was out-and-out voyeurism and lack of tact. She was shameless as well, but luckily, she knew when to keep her mouth shut (on good days) and when to bare all and tease the bejeezers out of her peers.

"So, whatcha think of Colonel Sheppard?"

Casper gave her a blank look. Doc B snickered. Genny rolled her eyes at both of them, and put down a pair of sevens.

"Who's Colonel Sheppard again?" asked Casper, scowling at the suit change and flipping out a three.

"Dark hair, a little long in the face, cocksure American-type –" Grace began.

"Military commander for this entire city," Genny finished. "Damn you, Cas, I have to pick up now."

"Oh, him. The one who looks like he lost a fight with a wind tunnel?"

"That's the one," Grace said cheerfully. "Harry Potter hair and all."

And so on, and so forth…

* * *

About half an hour, two bags of peanut M&Ms and six last card games later, the lights went out.

"Oh for fucks sake!" Casper bawled. "Now what?"

Genny snickered. "It could be space vampires."

"…You're not funny."

Dr. Berry laughed at both of them and cautiously began navigating the darkened room to find the emergency torch under her bed.

* * *

Several hours and far too many bad ghost stories after that, the power apparently came back on.

The room lit without warning, various appliances chimed as they woke up, and Casper swore furiously and threw his earpiece away from his ear.

"What the hell!" he snarled, glowering at the offending comm-device.

"Casper?"

"Bloody thing nearly blew my eardrum. I think the power surge might've done something to it."

Genny smirked. "Or it could be you constantly losing it down the side of the jumper benches and lab desks."

"Whatever."

Dr. Berry frowned, picking up the earpiece and listened to it for a second. Her eyes widened. The assistants eyed her expectantly.

"I think something has happened to it. Listen."

All three of them sat bunched up around the earpiece, straining to hear.

"_Oh, please!"_ said a voice that sounded suspiciously like Elizabeth Weir's. _"Even Weir thinks you're hopeless,"_ this stranger declared laughingly. _"She can't hide it."_

Rearing back, brief looks of confusion and rising apprehension were exchanged.

"Isn't that…? But she was speaking in third person."

"Yeah. And she sounds…evil."

"Jesus. What the hell is going on…?"

They crammed back to the earpiece. Disaster followed.

"_We're close,"_ came the terse reply.

"That's Caldwell," Casper whispered, and Grace nodded.

Weir-but-not spoke again, taunting. _"I have found an interesting way of rerouting your new halon fire suppression system all the way from Hazmat storage to personnel quarters. Now, that's where the majority of your city's population is holed up, isn't it?"_

"WHAT!?" roared Casper. Grace shushed him frantically. Genny had gone completely white, her freckles standing out like biscuit-coloured ink spots.

Caldwell was speaking again, and they could _hear_ him trying to retain his calm. _"You know it is."_

"_Ironically,"_ the evil, and apparent-puppet-master said. _"Doctor Weir was concerned when the system was installed that halon gas extinguishes people as well as fires. So, shall we take it to the point that I start counting down from an arbitrary number?"_

Casper immediately snatched up the earpiece and began yelling.

"No!" he howled. "No, you crazy bitch, don't! _**Don't do it**_!"

"It's no use," Dr. Berry said grimly. "It's probably only a one way cross."

"Oh dear," Genny said, very, very softly.

Then she fainted.

* * *

Ronon woke slowly, still muzzy with pain-killers and wondering what was going on – and why there was a strange young woman with rambunctious hair, sitting on the bed next to his, peering at him curiously.

"Hi," she said. "I'm Genny. Dr. Beckett said you have a gut wound, so you probably won't be able to eat anything solid for a while. I've left some chocolate on you're table though. Dr. Beckett said he promises not to let the nurses nick it." She smiled and gave him a little wave. "Bye."

He watched her short-sightedly as she awkwardly hopped off the bed and hobbled off out of his limited line of sight. A few seconds later, he fell asleep again.

"Hi Dr. Weir!"

John glanced up from his data pad. One of the new assistants (_marine biology…what was her name…Ginny?_) was limping up to Elizabeth, smiling and waving what appeared to be a slightly dilapidated block of Cadbury's Black Forest.

Elizabeth was smiling back, politely at first until she saw the chocolate. "Hi," she said back. "Genevieve Glass, isn't it?"

"Genny," the girl said, finding a chair and plopping down. She began divvying up chocolate squares, carefully handing several to Elizabeth on a torn section of foil. "I was in the neighbourhood, thought I might come and say hi. Also, Doc B wanted me to pass on that she'd like to meet with you at some point this week; she'll mail you with details."

"Thanks for the heads up."

"You're welcome." Genny's expression then morphed, becoming…fluffy.

What neither John nor Elizabeth knew was that over the years, Genny had become a master of appearing harmless and fluffy. The latter was not an exaggeration. Due the nature of her hair, she had been the only white girl in her high school capable of having an afro, had she been so inclined. When she was eight, she had dressed up as Little Orphan Annie for Halloween, borrowed the neighbour's English sheepdog and made a _fortune_ in candy.

"Didja know," she began, "I recently heard the most killer rumour. Apparently, these four Air Force dudes got the crap kicked out of them…_by one girl_!" She leaned perilously back in her chair and hollered the last over her shoulder.

From somewhere across the infirmary came a chorus of male outrage. John snickered, recognizing the voices of Lorne and his men. They must've been recovering over there. He noted Elizabeth attempting to giggle discreetly into one hand.

Genny grinned, before lasering in on both of them. Had John been paying more attention he might have been a little worried.

"There was _also_," she continued, leaning forward again. "Something about a kiss…"

John and Elizabeth groaned. Of course. The girl was a regular scuttlebutt. And she'd caught them when they were vulnerable – stuck in hospital beds with no way of bolting for the high hills. They were doomed.

From there, the Great Twenty-First Gossip Campaign truly began in earnest.

* * *

He didn't notice it at first. The sun struck it in such a way that the refraction of light matched the case of his laptop. As he got closer, he made out its edges, and fractions of the precious image printed upon its surface.

A photograph.

Depicted was a young woman with a round, fine-boned face and a mass of shoulder length ash-blonde hair. Her eyes were his eyes – deep brown, very slightly down-turned at the outer corners. She was laughing, delighted, and held a small grinning dog in her arms. The date in the bottom right corner read twenty-third of February, 2005; last summer for them, it would have been.

Smiling, he turned the picture over.

In blue ballpoint, Grace's neat cursive:

_Maddie and Smarty, Surfer's Paradise_.

"Hello Maddie," he murmured.

* * *

**AN2:** For all you Northern Hemispherites, 'last card' is, of course, a card game. You kick off with seven cards and the aim is to be the first to get rid of all of them. If you put down a five or a two, the person after you has to pick up that many cards. If you put down a jack, the order of players' turns is reversed (clockwise/anticlockwise) and if you put down a ten the person after you misses a turn. Ace's change suits, and when you're down to you're last card, you have to say "last card" or when you put that card down, you'll have to pick up another seven.

What's really fun is hoarding all the fives and making the person after you pick up twenty. I'm notorious for it.

**Next, on **_**Leviathan**_ Dr. Weir learns the Doc B definition of a meeting.


	12. Girls Night In

**AN: **Oh God, I am so sorry it's taken so long to get this up. I've just been so all over the place and on mental overload working on my originals. I promise promise promise next time it won't take so long. For now I hope you enjoy this, even if it is limping a little. Also, unbeta'd so all mistakes are my own.

* * *

**Part 12 – Girls Night In**

It had been a long day, and by the looks of things, it was going to be a long night. She had one last meeting, and then skyscrapers of paperwork to contend with. It was times like this that Elizabeth pined for her old jobs, where there were enough minions to go around, and underlings that could be coerced into doing the bulk of paperwork.

Oh God. She was starting to sound like John and Rodney.

This last meeting was with Dr. Berry. She had asked Elizabeth to join her briefly in her quarters on the third sciences level. With a sigh, she turned to the door before her…

…and paused.

Music?

It was. It was music. Something paced but lazy, contemporary, sax and violins. Layered over it was the sound of familiar voices in light conversation, sprinkled with intermittent laughter.

It was all very appealing.

Curiosity getting the better of her, she swiped the door open, and was confronted with if not one of the more bizarre scenes ever to come across in her time in the City, then at least one of the more out of place ones.

Arrayed on the good doctor's bed and floor, seated on floor cushions and spare pillows, were various females from equally various departments.

The doctor herself was there, in blue silk pajamas and having her long blonde hair carefully unbraided by Genny Glass, who was curled on the bed and clad in an over large green t-shirt and grey leggings. Her still bound ankle rested on a pillow beside Dr. Berry.

Next to Genny on the bed was Miko Kusanagi, painting her toenails a soft pink, the sleeves of her Hello Kitty PJ's rolled up to keep them clean.

On the floor, chatting to Grace was Katie Brown (purple cotton baby-t and pants) with a Cosmo open in her lap.

Kate Heightmeyer (black satin slip and gown) was pouring what appeared to be bootleg brandy into plastic wine glasses.

Ava Qiosese (Fiji Bitter t-shirt and boxers) sat having henna applied to her hands by Nimet Bryce (fuchsia button down blouse and pants set).

Laura Cadman (red tracks and tank – although this was probably for everyone else's benefit. It was public knowledge at this point that Lt. Cadman slept in the buff) was sorting through and distributing a sizable heap of chocolate.

Jennifer Keller (sunshine yellow Mickey Mouse boxers and shirt) and Teyla (powder blue cotton tank and pants) were playing a half-hearted game of chess and discussing the finer points of MacGyver – one of the few shows to make it to Atlantis in all its DVD boxset glory.

Grace looked up, spotted her. And grinned.

"Elizabeth, you made it. Pull up a cushion, grab a brandy."

Elizabeth blinked.

Then kicked off her shoes, dropped onto the proffered pillow, accepted her booze and said, "Finally, thank God."

* * *

It was just past one AM when things got really silly. Or at least, the conversation did. No one except Laura was a very active drunk. Most of them were in fact, wordy drunks. Dr. Berry had a particular word that she was fond of…

"Nuddie!"

There was an answering chorus of giggles.

This all related back to the Tale of Two Minds in One Astrophysicist, and the consequential nudity that any involvement with Laura Cadman seemed to bring. Some how, this all ended up with the train of thought that went…

"Gosh, can you imagine Rodney McKay running about the City in the Nuddie?!"

Katie Brown pretended to swoon. "Where?" she said.

Ava and Jennifer were chortling into their brandy.

When the second wave of giggling had died down, Grace waggled her glass at Katie and said, "Ah, but the real question is, _have you shagged him_?"

The mood took a slight dive as Katie sighed morosely.

"No," she said, eyeing her newly painted toenails with woebegone eyes. She peered under her auburn fringe at them, looking a picture of sadness. "I think he's avoiding me."

Laura put one arm around her friend's shoulder.

"Don't feel bad," the Lieutenant told her. "If I was still at the wheel you'd be the most thoroughly shag – _hic_ – shagged girls on the face of this planet."

Kate Heightmeyer's eyebrows climbed to meet her hairline. "Which opens an entirely new barrel of psychological monkeys –"

"– That doesn't really bear thinking about," Elizabeth finished. "Now, where did those truffles get to?"

* * *

Outside, Miller and Stackhouse were on the graveyard patrol shift.

Behind one of the quarter's doors came the sound of giggling. Stackhouse started forward to the door…

Only to have Miller grab his arm.

"At this point," he told Stackhouse seriously. "It's worth neither your life nor your nuts to open that door. Trust me on this," he added. "I have sisters."

Little did they know that they themselves were at that point being discussed.

* * *

Genny, adventurous creature that she was, had volunteered several times to help explore the City's extensive labs in the outer reaches of the science wings. One of these escapades involved Genny, Sergeant Stackhouse and Lieutenant Miller falling into a vat of goop that had the unfortunate effect of completely depilating human skin.

Genny, already clad in infirmary pajamas, grinned at the two Marines. They sat about a foot from each other on the exam table opposite the assistant, arms wrapped around their naked torsos as nurses and the on-call doc prodded and swabbed them.

Genny snickered inappropriately at various intervals. They both looked truly ridiculous with half their chest hair missing.

"It's like Chippendales," she commented cheerfully, "except kinda gross and with no bowties."

Stackhouse glared. "What do you know about Chippendales?"

Genny, with her usual tact and honesty replied, "Me and Alex snuck into Show Boys on Commerce Street when we were sixteen. Also, we watch a lot of rated American television."

Pause.

"What?"

Miller and Stackhouse looked faintly horrified for a minute. Then Miller muttered to his companion, "You just don't know when to shut up, do you?"

"No, sir."

* * *

Elizabeth grinned and began refilling the others glasses.

"So, this is going to be a regular thing?" she asked the group in general.

"I jolly well hope so," Grace said, lazily swirling her drink and watching the gaudy gold liquid dance along the plastic.

"You bet your ass it is," Laura told them, slugging hers back.

Elizabeth quirked an eyebrow at her.

"Well," the Lieutenant said. "What else am I supposed to do with the three kegs of bootleg amber sitting under the loose tiles in my room?"


	13. Hallefreakinglujah

**Disclaimer: **I do not own PFC David Shackleton, that great trial belongs to UglyTrollProductions.

**AN: **I am so sorry that its taken me this long to update. I've been beating my brains out trying to work out the next installments of my crossover fics and what I'm going to do for employment this year along with Uni papers. However, I managed to cobble these together, and to make up for it you guys are getting another double update.

**IMPORTANT: **We got shown this video at Armageddon last year before the Joe Flanigan interview. You HAVE to watch this if you want to understand the chapter. Honestly, its one big in joke. Just search UglyTrollProductions and stargate promo on youtube, it'll be there.

* * *

**Part Thirteen – Halle-freaking-lujah**

Somewhere along the line, Casper concluded that Doctor Weir's brain had imploded, and that the stress of running an alien City had pushed her over the edge into madness, because there was _no other logical reason_ that she should send him offworld.

"The local's there are worried about population levels in their ocean."

Apart from _that_ reason.

This meant that he would need some basic training before he could go offworld with a team. So here he was, about to kick off a beginners hand-to-hand lesson with a pack of marines.

Oh goodie.

Most of the military types in the City weren't that bad when it came to the scientists. Evan Lorne was by this point their regular pilot out to the pontoon and got on with all of them. He was Casper's friend, just like Ava was Genny's.

But some of these guys were just…argh. If they'd handed Cas his side arm at that moment, he would have made sure he was the only life sign in the room. Arseholes.

It didn't help that really, he didn't have the right build for this. He was fit, make no mistake, he'd had to be for his jobs, but he wasn't bulked like these guys. That was combat muscle, while Casper's was something more along the lines of swim-for-your-life, or get-out-of-the-way-of-the-charging-beast muscle.

On the whole, he had a bad feeling about this –

As he entered the rec room, one of the larger marines gave him the hairy eyeball.

– and goddamnit, sometimes he hated being right all the time.

* * *

Beneath the pontoon, great shapes moved, easing lazily through the water, echo-locating against the object above them. They were responding to the alien songs they had heard recently – strange patterns silvering the waters near their feeding grounds, and withdrawing in a rough trail back towards the continent, on the opposite side to the nursery bays. 

A juvenile strayed from the side of his mother, kicking gently towards the surface to breathe and turn one liquid black eye upon the structure that rose above the water. Though his vision was limited, he made out a single boxy spire of blue and silver, surrounded by flat decking.

Upon the deck nearest him, was one of the two-leggers. It spotted him and crossed rapidly to the edge of the deck, its small eyes wide, mouth parting. He sidled closer, and their gazes locked. He saw by its shape that it was female, and had ashy yellow head-hair.

Then it did something he had only seen in the echo-songs of his granddames and sires.

She smiled.

He had made her happy. The sight of him had made her smile.

Surprised and giddy, he inhaled abruptly and dove, laughing, back to his mother.

* * *

That was it. Really. This had gone too far. Casper was beyond pissed now. 

He had been stuck, waiting for the instructors and senior military staff to arrive, in this room with the newbie idiots for the past fifteen minutes, and it had gone downhill since he walked in.

The one that had given him the look had spent the time trying to get a rise out of Casper. He wasn't subtle about it, either.

Casper had an idea of why he was doing this. It was more alpha male bullshit. If he successfully provoked, and then caned the new nerd, he'd probably look good in front of the rest of his fellow jarheads.

The Atlantis old hands, like Lorne and his boys, would've hand this idiot his arse on a platter. They knew about handling scientists, because scientists answered to McKay, who took great issue and umbrage with bigheaded gun-totting types.

McKay, who controlled the City's hot water and air filters.

McKay, who was a brilliant, devious and vindictive bastard on a good day.

Unfortunately for Casper, McKay and one of his infamous laptops was not here.

Cas was going to have to do this himself, and he was getting an idea of how.

"You wanna wrestle this out?" he snapped when the marine began making leering comments about his co-workers. "Fine, we'll wrestle."

The marine snorted. "Bring it on, Dundee."

Casper dropped in something resembling a bastardized sumo crouch, bracing his legs apart, bending his knees but holding his hands loose over his thighs. Someone guffawed. They stopped when Casper grinned in an unnerving fashion and began crooning out,

"Here sookie. Here sook, sook, sook…"

Enraged at apparently being taunted, the marine charged.

* * *

There was a chime as her laptop came out of sleep mode and began transmitting an audiovisual from the pontoon. It was Dr. Berry. 

"Genny, run and get Casper. I need both you to come over with Evan and bring Dr. Zelenka to help with the equipment. The sonic markers worked – they're_here_!"

Genny snatched up her data pad, shoved her feet into the nearest pair of shoes and bolted in a pale orange blur down the hallway.

The airmen outside had never seen a science-type move so fast.

* * *

Well, this was new. 

John entered the rec room with Teyla and Ronon, only to come face to face with a hitherto sight-unseen.

Casper Hayfield was glowering darkly at them from his seat on the back of a large marine – who was current hog-tied with his own belt and squawking in alarm through the sock in his mouth.

"Oh my," Teyla said softly.

"Cool," said Ronon.

"You're late," Hayfield ground out.

John tried and failed to keep his eyebrows from rising to meet his hairline.

"I can see that." He cautiously moved into the room and set down his gym bag, looking around at the newest batch of Atlantis military staff. They were ranged around the room, shifting shamefacedly, some shuffling like schoolboys.

This _was_ new. The only thing he'd seen to date that got this kind of result was a thorough pegging down by deceptively small Teyla or being howled out by Rodney.

Just what had Casper done?

* * *

Genny careened around a corner, calling apologies to the bowled over botanists behind her and ran smack-dab into the person coming from the opposite direction. 

There was a thud as they collided, two yelps of surprise and pain and then more thudding as they both landed on their arses. Genny actually squealed.

After a moment of confusion, the two of them managed to gather themselves, offer wry smiles and help each other up.

The man Genny had crashed into was about her height – five eight, approximately – and wiry. He was pale, had glasses and dark hair, and wore an Essential Services badge. He had a faintly unkempt look about him.

There was a pause while both absorbed the sight of each others flag badges.

"Oh my God!" they cried in unison. "You're from New Zealand!"

* * *

The session having ended, the newbies left and Casper fled, leaving a trail of uncertain marines and violent Australian cursing behind him. Teyla, Sheppard and Ronon who were staying for their own personal sparring sessions, watched him go with a collective expression of faint amusement and confusion. 

Casper went back to his quarters, showered, mooched for a bit, then decided not to be a useless drop-kick and headed back to work. He was feeling back to his old rambunctious self when Evan came across him heading to the labs. They fell into step and Evan grinned.

"So," he said casually. "Heard you hog-tied a marine."

"I'm a man of many facets," the Aussie told him cheerfully.

Evan laughed. "But seriously, how'd you do it? Ancient Australian Kung Fu technique?" He gave Casper a mock stern look. "You been holding out on me, Hayfield?"

"Bugger off," Cas told him good naturedly. "Trust me, the only reason I got one up on the jarhead was that he got stupid and I got lucky. It's not something I could pull twice, and not on someone smart either. If I'd tried it with you or Sheppard or Dex, you'da wiped the floor with me."

"What about Teyla?"

Casper snorted. "Wouldn't work on Teyla in the first place."

"Why?"

"She's a chick. Got no manly pride to insult."

"That's how you got 'em?" Evan said incredulously. "Insulting his 'manly pride'?"

Casper shrugged. "He pissed me off, I pissed him off, he charged without thinking. Meh."

"Right. So, how'd the rest of the session go?"

Casper looked annoyed. "No one would volunteer to spar with me, the pack of cowards. _Jeez_, you take down _one_ overblown marine and suddenly you're the _bogeyman_. _What_ is the world coming to, Evan?"

The major watched him rant and flail for a bit, grinning again. When Casper had finished, Evan checked his watch.

"I've got a few spare hours. If we head back now, I could give you a few pointers, maybe get Dex to help out too."

"Genny'll bribe him for me," Casper said confidently. "She got him addicted to chocolate."

"Really?"

"It's his own fault." Casper wagged his finger and said sternly. "You should never accept sweets from strange New Zealanders."

And Genny was about as strange as they come. Well, as far as they knew…

* * *

Really, she would think later, she should have seen the signs earlier and saved herself a lot of mental trauma. 

"So you're the only military Kiwi here?"

"Yes," he said. Then snapped his heels together, saluted and announced, "PFC David Shackleton, at your service!"

Then he laughed at his own 'joke'.

Genny subconsciously made minute movements towards the nearest exit.

"Ha," she said. "Ha, ha. Um, anyway. Where're you from? Auckland? Wellington?"

"Gore," he said happily.

Genny's smile became a little fixed. "Oh. Cool. _Ahem_. So, David, what do you do here?"

"Clean, mostly. I mop the gateroom floor." He gave her a look of earnest long-suffering. "You would not _believe_ how much mud those guys track in. Especially Sheppard's Team. You know Sheppard?"

PFC David Shackleton then pulled a folded ten by twenty centimeter glossy of Lieutenant Colonel Sheppard from his jacket pocket.

Genny risked cardiac arrest.

"Uh-huh," she peeped, fighting to not to gag. Or pass out.

"Are you okay?" Shackleton asked her.

"Yup," Genny croaked. "Just…threw up in my mouth a little. Indigestion you know."

But wait, there's more…

Shackleton stared fixedly at the photo. For two whole minutes.

"How do you think he gets his hair like that?" he asked eventually. "All kind of scruffy and sexy and stuff."

Oh. _God_.

* * *

"Cas, any idea where Genny is?" 

"Dunno. In the labs probably."

"Huh. Oh well. We'll go and find her later I guess."

But by _later_, it would, of course, be _too_ late.

* * *

Fifteen minutes _later_, Genny was barely able to speak. 

Shackleton was just putting away his pictures of Ronon and Teyla, when the assistant's brain finally hit an automatic survival switch and kick-started into action.

"What's that, Casper?" she said suddenly, touching her ear-piece and startling Shackleton. "You need me to go and get Dr. Zelenka? For Dr. Berry? Of course!"

"So sorry can't stay must dash!" she cried over her shoulder to Shackleton, and shot away, once again a blur of pale orange, this time fighting not to run screaming from the room.

Luck to beat all luck, she found most of the people she wanted to vent to in one place.

They were in the rec room. Evan and Casper were apparently sparring while Ronon circled them, making comments and intermittently hitting both with a bantos stick for emphasis. Teyla and Sheppard appeared to be packing up from their own session, while McKay stood waiting impatiently with a data pad in hand. She registered that he was talking about food and hurrying up to get some, before her own mouth got thoroughly out of control and she blurted,

"Oh! My! God!"

All activity paused. In the brief moment of quiet, Genny hyperventilated.

It was broken by Ronon recognizing the manic hair – mostly because she had stopped moving.

"Hey, Genny. Did you bring chocolate?" he rumbled by way of greeting.

"Ronon!" Teyla scolded. The girl was obviously in genuine distress.

"What? It makes me feel better."

"Oh my God!" Genny cried wringing her hands. "How can you possibly think of chocolate at a time like this!?" She made a low keening noise.

"Whoa, whoa." Evan had come over and put a hand on her shoulder. "Gen, what's the matter? What's happened?"

Genny latched onto him with a death grip. Evan very wisely became nervous.

"Did you know?" she asked, face white, blue eyes huge. "Did you know he was here?"

"Who's here?" Sheppard asked, suddenly very serious at the mention of an unknown in his City.

"The other one."

Casper had by this point come over and was helping peel her fingers from Evan's arms.

"Other what, Gen?"

"The other New Zealander!" she wailed. "There's another New Zealander here and he's _weeeeeeeird_! He's from down south – from_Gore_!"

This statement had rather a strange effect on the member's of Team Sheppard. Teyla's mouth thinned, Ronon's eyes narrowed and both their grips tightened on their weapons. Sheppard's eyes widened and his gaze darted to the room's exits. He looked…twitchy. McKay's face suddenly developed the look he would probably wear were he to get a mouthful of lemon, before of course going into anaphylactic shock, but on the whole he seemed the least disturbed by it.

"Oh, _him_," he said tetchily. "Didn't you and Stackhouse catch him stalking someone?" he asked, turning to Evan.

"Stalking _me_, Rodney," said Sheppard, who was now peering cautiously into the corridor. He turned to Genny. "Did he follow you back, Kiki?"

Before the whole stalking incident, when most had assumed Genny _was_ the only New Zealander on in the City, she had been dubbed Kiki, short for Kiwi or (more appropriately given her eccentricities) Kiwifruit. Most people used it to tease, much like Casper sometimes called her Fall Out Girl. Usually it was followed by a half-hearted threat of violence from its idiosyncratic owner, but now Genny just shook her head and gazed at Sheppard with comically wide eyes.

Teyla, still tight-lipped, said sternly, "I was under the impression Elizabeth was sending him back to Earth."

"He's due on the Daedalus's next trip outta here," Sheppard growled. "There was paper work," he added sourly. "Personally, I think Caldwell's putting off having to have him onboard his ship for as long as possible."

"Wouldn't you?" McKay said, by this time thoroughly put-out. He was getting hungrier, and there was no food forthcoming. "You know what they play down in Essential Services in their spare time? Pin the tail on the McKay."

"At least he's not stalking your hair," Sheppard said darkly.

Casper was by this point biting down fiercely on his knuckles in an attempt not to laugh himself sick. He looked at Evan and saw the major's mouth twitching.

To Ronon and Teyla he asked, "What'd he do to piss you two off?"

"He 'asked me out', I believe is the phrase," Teyla told him. "I said no. Repeatedly. Then Ronon said no for me."

"With a stick," Ronon added.

Genny began hyperventilating again. "Oh God, oh God, I'm next, I'm next. I talked to him, he'll want to hang out and… and… and stuff! Oh _God_, I'll have to live on the pontoon."

Pause.

"The pontoon!!! Casper!"

"Yes!" he responded, alarmed.

"We have to get Dr. Zelenka and get to the pontoon!"

"Zelenka?" McKay said incredulously, with the inevitable professional distain. "What do you need _Zelenka_ for?"

"The equipment, of course!"

Casper was frowning now. "The equipment – Gen, what's happened? Why do we have to go out there?"

Genny was already bounding out of the rec room, dragging Evan with her.

"Whales, Cas!" she crowed over her shoulder. "_Whales_!"

* * *

AN2: Review, please. Kiss-kiss! 


	14. Are You R2?

**Part 14 – Are You R2?**

"I still don't see why you have to come, Rodney," Zelenka was saying over the jumper's com. "Dr. McNab and I are perfectly capable of using these programmes."

John and Rodney both sighed but for completely different reasons. Rodney because he was going to have to explain it _again_, and John…well, because Rodney was going to explain it _all_ again.

"Do I really have to explain this again, Radek?"

"No!" said John and Zelenka firmly.

"Hmph," was the vaguely indignant reply.

Honestly, the only reason the two of them were heading for the pontoon was curiosity. Rodney wanted to see if the whales ranged about the pontoon were the same ones as the sea monster that had found his sunken jumper. John was going to keep an eye on Rodney at Elizabeth's request, and to stay out of the way while she attempted to contain the Shackleton situation.

Also, he'd never been whale watching.

So half an hour after Lorne had left with Zelenka, Hayfield and Kiki, Rodney had finished lunch and then practically gone into convulsions when he realized that Zelenka was going to be the first to see the whales on the pontoons extensive underwater mapping systems.

Oh, and that there was_no way_ anyone on the pontoon was qualified enough to use its undoubtedly complex systems save himself.

John had stupidly volunteered to fly him out rather than risk Rodney attempting to pilot in his current state (of girly hysterics), then realized what he was getting himself in for and said to Ronon,

"So, buddy, you coming along?"

Ronon had looked over at Rodney very nearly frothing at the mouth, grinned feraly at John, clapped him on the back and said,

"You're on your own, _buddy_."

He was an evil, evil, smirking man.

As they came into the final approach and the pontoon came into their visual range, John listened to Rodney _rabble-rabble-rabble_ at Zelenka.

"And another thing, you do _not_ have a _clue_ how to operate the – _Holy Mother of God is that a bikini?_"

The mother of God was indeed holy and that _was_ a bikini.

Genny – for it was she – was keeping visual lookout on the deck of the pontoon with a pair of binoculars, a laptop and very little else.

It was like a scene out of an old James Bond movie – the big-haired, leggy, (and scantily clad) female lead standing around on some glamorous location, doing her thing, oblivious to the panning shot taking in ever gloriously bare inch of her.

In this case, John and Rodney stood in for the camera.

The bikini in question was small triangle-and-string arrangement of bright green, spotted with big yellow stars. Over the bottoms was a pair of purple –_purple_ – denim shorts that barely made it half an inch past the tops of her thighs.

It took them a full five minutes to realize that she was also wearing sunglasses.

* * *

Genny had apparently fully recovered from her ordeal and was living up the rampant sunshine in style (although Genny's sense of style was questionable at best, the male consensus was that she was really making it work this time.)

In any case, she'd volunteered to be the first to dive and get a good look the pontoon's newest arrivals. She was standing on the edge of the deck where the whales had been sighted, wriggling into her wetsuit. She'd just managed to get her it over her shoulders when she remembered the ripcord was too short for her to reach.

"Bugger it."

"Everything okay?"

Great Christmas come early; Sheppard was standing not two feet from her. Genny waged a brief war with her hormones, which they won. Peeking over her shoulder, she flashed a blinding smile at him and peeped,

"Peachy! Zip me up?"

John suddenly found himself confronted with an expanse of faintly luminous, velvety skin, pale and slightly freckled over the shoulder blades.

"Umm."

"Oh come on, s'not like its anything you've never seen before." At John's brief pause, Genny happily leapt to conclusions. Blue eyes wide and guileless she continued, "Unless, it _is_ something you've never seen before."

His eyes widened to comical proportions.

"Oh no," he blustered, "no, no, no, no! I've defiantly…" Much indicative throat clearing. "…done that."

"But…oh. So if you've done…_that_, but you never seen…" Genny appeared to think about this for a moment. Then she gave him a look of exaggerated understanding. "_Oh_. So you're…you know." This was followed by a sly sidelong look.

For a moment John didn't get it, but there are some things – thoughts, ideas, concepts – that require very little to be conveyed between two people. This turned out to be one of those things.

John thought he might have an aneurism.

She leered in a friendly manner and said, "I totally understand, I had this friend once who swung that way too. Do you have a certain someone...?"

The colonel fought to breathe.

Genny looked over his shoulder at doctors McNab, McKay and Zelenka, who stood bickering by the outdoor workstation. Dr. Berry was watching, amused. Gen waggled her eyebrows and said,

"Its one of the science team, isn't it?"

John made several incoherent choking noises.

"What's going on over there?" Rodney chose to call at that moment.

"_Oui_," said Dr. McNab, who was French but had had a Scotsman for a paternal grandfather. "Genny, _chéri_, you are alright?"

"Perfectly darling, thanks!" Genny called back, suddenly sweetness and light.

Pause.

"You sneaky little…" John said, hazel eyes narrowed at her.

Genny snickered. "C'mon, Shep. Zip me up and help me with my tank."

He did, grumbling good-naturedly the entire time. They sat shoulder to shoulder until it was time to begin the dive views.

* * *

Flexing, twisting, the Leviathans drifted over to the two-legger kicking aimlessly in the water before them. Another female, covered in an artificial skin and with a cloud of near-coral coloured head-hair billowing about her shoulders. She peered at them with her small blue eyes, but her smile was obscured by her bubbling mouthpiece.

They echo-located against her gently, feeling out the shape of her, down to the individual filaments of her hair. The juvenile pushed forwards, hanging upside down in the water, the ribbed flesh of his throat and belly showing brilliant white in the water's blurred interior. Across his blowhole was a distinctive splatter of grey and pale blue.

Quite without thinking – or rather with thinking too much – he began to speak to her.

He reached for her, and finding a tenuous link, spooled out his songs for her; a collection of histories, of questions, and of beautiful things customary to speech between his people.

He was not prepared for the reaction.

The little two-legger panicked, and kicked frantically for the surface.

* * *

She was hauled gasping and sobbing from the water, a collection of flailing arms seeking anchorage, wide glazed eyes and shock-white skin.

John and Evan grabbed her, dragging her free of the water, laying her out on the deck and disentangling her from her dive gear. Casper got her legs raised while the two officers kept her focused and talking. Behind them, they could hear the whales' song playing live from the outdoor work station.

"Genny, Genny listen to me, okay? What happened? What made you panic?" John asked, one hand on her face to keep her looking at him.

She gasped raggedly, eyes wild but fixed on his. She seemed to be struggling with something, not to speak but for a way to express it, as though words just didn't fit. She gripped his hand frantically and he gripped back.

"Easy, take your time, Kiki, just no spacing on me, okay? Stay with us."

"They speak."

Two breathy, almost wheezing words.

"What? Who, who speaks?"

"The whales," she rasped. "The whales can speak."

* * *

The decision had been made for them to stay overnight on the pontoon. There was more than enough room, and Elizabeth had said she could spare Rodney and John for a night. If anything urgent enough came up they had their own jumper to return to the City in.

Twilight was rising over the Lantean planet, coiling up over the horizon and wrapping dying light around the pontoon and its occupants. Genny sat on the deck facing the continent, from whence the whales had come. Her bare toes grazed the surface of the water, sending out grey ripples over the lavender reflection of the sky.

She was alone; the others were inside, sorting through the data that had been collected that day and deciding where everyone was going to bunk down for the night. Dr. Berry had told her to take it easy, get some air and gather her thoughts. So here she was.

In her lap, she held a small audio recorder. Slowly, she played sections of the whale songs to herself. Listening by turns avidly or half-hearted, drifting with the rise and fall of the alien notes; bass and treble, baritone and soprano.

This was how John found her, gazing dreamily out to sea, faraway and yet somehow solemn.

"Hey," he said softly, sitting down beside her. "How're you holding up?"

She offered him a sleepy smile.

"Not too bad. Just kinda shook up is all, I guess."

"All seemed pretty intense from where I was sitting."

She looked back out over the ocean, turned the recorder over in her hands.

"It was. I'm still not entirely sure what happened. The nearest I can figure, they speak mind to mind, or something. Teyla might get it, what with the whole, Wraith-mind-meld-thingy."

"She's always described it as feeling cold," John told her. "Were they cold?"

Genny shook her head. "No, the opposite. Warm. It was a welcome, I think; I got flashes of things, places, sounds, colours. But it was still uncomfortable, y'know. Like stretching a muscle that you haven't used in, like, decades."

She paused and hit the play button. A series of eerie notes floated away from then over the water.

"God, it sounds so clichéd," she laughed softly. "Psychic whales. The greenies back home would have a field day. The Japs would be fucked."

They both sniggered.

"When you think about it," John told her, "it's not the weirdest thing we've found in Pegasus, or even on the other side of a stargate."

Genny smiled. "No offence, but in that case I'm seriously glad I won't be going offworld too much." She let out a soft huff of laughter. "Poor Casper."

"Yeah," John said slowly. "I don't know if you heard about today at the lesson – but how the hell does a guy like Casper take down a marine almost twice his size and come out the other side pissed off but whole?"

"I'll tell you what Dr. Berry told Evan." She put on an almost perfect imitation of Grace Berry's fading British accent and faintly smug manner. "'Casper spent much of his teenage years wrestling ungelded bull-calves into submission. From what I've seen and heard marines are a great deal like ungelded bull-calves: many could benefit from a good hog-tying.'"

John stared at her. "Are you serious?"

Genny smiled. "Casper's first job was helping an outback vet do the rounds at the cattle stations. The biggest job was dehorning and gelding bobby calves, that've just been weaned and get aggressive when their separated from their mum. He got pretty good at snatching angry charging beasties. Apparently enraged marines fall into the same category."

"You're kidding. You've got to be. He tied up a marine the same way he would a side of _beef_?"

Genny nodded.

"Damn."

She laughed again, but was cut off the sound of shifting water and the abrupt exhale of a whale. They were still here. Behind them, the workstation came to life again. A string of rapid-fire bleeps and squeals came from its speakers. Not six feet from Genny's toes, the smooth curve of a whale's spine rose, broken only by its blowhole and a smattering of blue and grey markings.

"You again," she murmured.

John noted she had tensed, as though expecting a blow, and was gripping his hand hard enough to bruise. From the workstation came a second set of clipped trills. John squeezed her hand.

"R2-D2," he said.

"What?" Genny was looking at him, successfully distracted.

"The calls, songs, whatever. They sound like R2-D2. From Star Wars."

She was staring at him.

"What?"

"Shep, you realize, you've just named the whale."

Pause. John looked briefly conflicted.

"Okay," he eventually conceded. "But you can't tell McKay."

* * *

The young Leviathan moved cautiously closer to the two-leggers perched on the deck above him. He listened to the lilting sounds they made; human laughter. He trilled again, rising and arcing so that his back brushed the undersides of their dangling feet.

There was a tense pause, and then something wonderful happened.

An answering song spooled back to him from the little female.

Images of the two-legger City woken from slumber, bright shafts of sunlight filtering through many-coloured lenses, precious views of their world from the sky, visions of green from the mainland where they could not roam. It was basic as far as songs went, but it was a song, an answer without fear.

Best of all he gathered her name and the name they had given him.

She was Genny.

He was R2.

* * *

**AN:** Review again! Loves! 


	15. Coup D'etat

** 15 – Coup D'etat **

Casper was giving Carson a cautious look.

"So," he said, head kilted slightly to the side, dark eyes narrowed. "It's not them."

"No, lad," Carson sighed for the third time, long-suffering in the extreme.

The young man sagged against the nearest bed, visibly relieved, and not a little exhausted.

"Just making sure," he said, running one hand through his hair. It had been a little long when he'd arrived in the City, now it was just downright shaggy. Casper had been making noises about getting a haircut; he'd muttered something about looking a right dipshit with a ponytail and no one was quick to dissuade him of this opinion.

Carson gave him a sympathetic look. "I know you're friends with Major Lorne, you've every right t' be worried. That reminds me; how's the lass, Genny?"

Casper let out a truly monstrous sigh and scrubbed his face with both hands, then peered at Carson over the tips of his fingers for a few moments. Suddenly decisive, he told the doctor,

"Know what? You can come and see for yourself; I'm gonna go tell her in person 'bout Lorne and his boys, so you might as well come along and validate it all."

Carson experienced an uncomfortable dropping sensation somewhere around his gut, something he usually associated with imminent chaos and perturbment. In Atlantis, he got it about every other week, and at this rate was going to develop stomach ulcers.

"Ah, well," he began, "I would, Casper, really I would, but, ah…I've got t' work on this case y'see, and –"

– And yet despite this, he found himself being dragged off to the civilian quarters and standing in front of what was evidently Genny's door.

From inside came a strain of mournful keyboard music and a man's voice crooning, _"And let me be alone again…" _

Carson was transfixed with horror.

"Is that…?"

"Dan Fogelburg," Casper said grimly, his face set. "Genny's sad music."

Shortly after there was a saxophone solo.

Casper shuddered. "Right," he muttered. "Let's get this over with."

He swiped the door open, and the music rose several decibels, washing over them.

"Oh bloody hell," said Carson, at the sight that greeted them.

It reeked of a flashback from an eighties tear-jerker. There was Genny, slumped gracefully over the Ancient's version of boom box (dug out of some of the old residences two towers over) wearing her 'home' clothes of grey leggings and oversized green t-shirt. Her hair was a mess of faded orange, and every so often a great heavy sigh could be heard, interspersed with hiccups reminiscent of small frogs. To really finish the scene off, a light rain had begun, and was currently beating against the coloured glass panels of Genny's French doors, which she was gazing out of. The whole room was fuzzed with washed out blue light.

At the sound of the door opening, Genny looked over her shoulder at them, her face a picture of woe. She did not cry well, Carson noticed. Her face was blotched and tear-stained, both eyes and nose a painful looking red contrasting with her pale skin and freckles. Combined with her wide mouth and green shirt, she did look rather frog-like.

_ "Listen to the rhythm of the falling rain…" _ Fogelburg exhorted.

Casper gave the boom box a baleful glare before stalking halfway into the room and saying to Genny, very firmly, "Gen, it's not them."

She must have given the machine the stop command out of surprise because the music suddenly cut.

"What?" she whispered roughly in the abrupt quiet.

"It's not them," Casper told her. "The bodies Sheppard found; it's not Lorne and his team, it's some other unlucky buggers. Look," he added at her incredulous look, "if you don't believe me you can ask Dr. Beckett."

Carson cautiously stepped forward. "Aye, it's all true; ran the DNA myself."

There seemed to be a moment of stillness, like the proverbial quiet before a storm, and then the girl let out a scream of happiness and launched herself at Casper. The young Aussie caught her, thankfully, and swung her in a gentle circle while she squealed happily into his shoulder.

Carson, mistakenly thinking he had escaped, watched with an indulgent sort of smile on his face. That is, he did until Casper put Genny down and she leapt for his throat. Quite without warning, he suddenly had an armful of delighted, shrieking female and was almost smothered by a cloud of sea salt scented curls.

"Augh," said Carson ineffectually.

"Oh thank god, thank god, thank god, thank god," Genny squeaked in his ear.

She released him rather quickly, so most of his hearing was saved, and gave him a brilliant smile, which more than made up for the tear-stains and bloodshot eyes. Carson returned it, before she pecked him once on either cheek and then darted off to hug Casper again. Next thing they knew, she'd swooped out the door, calling that she was off to tell Dr. Berry.

"Well," Casper sighed ruefully, "that could've been worse." He glowered again at the boom box.

Carson shared the sentiment. "It's a bugger of a thing that she's the only one that the gene took to out of the three of you."

"You're telling me," the assistant muttered.

"You know," Carson felt he had to warn. "Just because those bodies aren't them, doesn't mean they're not…"

Casper nodded solemnly. "I know, and so does Gen, but it makes a big difference that there's still a chance that they're alive. And she needed that."

"Aye."

"Thanks for coming, by the way."

Carson gave him a look. "Its not like I had much choice," he said tartly.

Casper only grinned, gave him a friendly punch on the shoulder and led him from Genny's rooms.

* * *

Upon their arrival back from Ladon's successful coup, Team's Sheppard and Lorne were not in the same extremes of high spirits. Like Carson, however, they were not about to be given a choice in the matter.

They encountered Genny as they were walking back to the military quarters from the lockers and public bathrooms. John, Evan and Ronon were walking together, talking in low voices, understandably exhausted. The officers were giving Ronon a more detailed run down of the botched ZPM retrieval and coup.

All the warning they got was quick barefoot footsteps and then a cry of delight before Genny careened into them, hugging each exuberantly, even Ronon, who hadn't been in any danger in the first place.

"You're all alive," she crowed, kicking her legs up as Ronon swung her a little, before he asked about chocolate (again).

John, having received his hug, eyed Genny's half bare legs with wistful expression that he was careful to wipe away when Casper emerged. The Aussie wore a relieved, if moochy look, but appeared happier when he spotted Evan as Genny threatened to crush the life from him.

"The wanderers return," he quipped, clapping the major on the back in a manly fashion.

There wasn't much time for more talk though, because Genny then moved onto kisses, planted an uncomplicated wet one square on the lips of all save Casper, cooed at each of them and danced down the hallway back the way she'd come.

"Ah well," Casper said, clapping Evan on the back again. "I'd better go and see she doesn't bounce into any pot plants. See you lot tomorrow."

And off he sloped, hands in his pockets.

Evan and John stood staring after them with stunned expressions, rather as though they'd been slapped in the face with a halibut. Oddly, Ronon didn't seem too phased, regarding the hallway where the two Southern Hemispherites had disappeared down with a faintly smug expression.

"Okay," John managed. "What the hell was that?"

"I think," Evan answered, sounding careful and rather thoughtful, "that was Genny. When she's relieved. Or she might've had coffee."

Genny was banned from having coffee, or anything with a significant amount of caffeine for that matter. Casper had been the one to instigate the ban. When John had asked why, he'd given him a dark look before explaining.

Apparently he'd been a tutor during Genny's first year of university before Doctor Berry had hired him, and had made friends with her then. During the mid semester holidays Genny had gone up north with friends and been dared to do seven espresso shots. Two hours later Casper had received a call informing him that Genny was prancing about in a local river, completely naked and singing Blondie's 'When I Think About You I Touch Myself' at the top of her lungs, in plain view of passing motorists.

"Guess who had to go and get her?" Casper'd said, archly regarding John's half empty coffee cup.

Now, there was a collectively mortified pause. The assistant's earlier comment about pot plants might not be entirely in jest.

"Nah, Hayfield would've been pissed," said Ronon. "She was just happy to see us."

He shrugged his shoulders loosely, slapped both officers on the back hard enough to make them stumble and strode off in the direction of his quarters, saying with a smug smile, "I'll get the chocolate tomorrow."

"Yeah," John agreed vaguely, still looking toward the corridor where she'd danced away, putting a hand to his mouth.

* * *

**AN:** The coffee shot story? Based on true events. It happened to a friend up in Kawakawa. For those Kiwis who know it, you know those three little bridges out by the railroad tracks…you'll never look at the first the same again, I guarantee it. 


End file.
